Cater To A Selected Audience

In my previous post, I talked about how your audience needs their own set of skills to be able to decode and interpret what you as a communicator send to them. This is true, but I left out one other aspect. You generally don't send out a message to the whole world.

First off, yes, I totally grasp the irony that I just said you don't send a message to the whole world on my blog, where anyone on earth can read it. But this blog is not written for everyone. I write this blog for writers. It is of benefit to people who are curious, who think about life and the world around them. It uses a certain vocabulary that people are either going to need to know or need to learn in order to understand what I'm saying.

The way I write here is not the way I talk (at least, not exactly). More importantly, it's not the way I talk to everybody. Some people get simpler language and easier thoughts. Some people get flowery language and others get it blunt. Some people get vast dialogue and others get a few answers. And within all of those extremes, some people get everything in between.

You have to cater to a selected audience. Choose the kind of person (or in one-on-one communication, a single person) you want to receive your message and communicate in a way that they will be best able to interpret accurately. Word choice is a top priority, but also get a feeling for how they see the world, what facts they are already aware of and what things would need to be explained. Make your communication be as smooth as possible. The fewer bumps along the path, the more likely your message will remain in tact when it reaches its destination.